finally had some time to finish this one up and I can't believe I put it on hold (put it on hold after ep2)this show was definitely awesome all the way from ep 3 till the end (I don't really remember how I felt about the first two since I watched them when it aired)

This was surprisingly good although I wasn't expecting much in the first place. I would have prefered a more continuous storyline though and maybe more elaboration on all this NEET stuff. It seems to be a recuring theme in animes lately but none of the series that I watched really managed to say anything interesting about it (Welcome to the NHK was a worthy attempt though). Here again the whole problem was explained away by making it into some kind of a lifestyle choice as the last lines of Alice suggested. I have a simple question: If NEET stands for "Not in Education, Employment or Training", then how come one can be a NEET detective, which is effectively a form of self-employment?

Spoiler :

I would have much prefered that the whole drug story would have structured the whole series with more focus on Ayaka and less on Soichirou and Renji. Some of the episodes were just boring and unnecessary and could have been used better. I liked the suicide twist in the end though as I totally wasn't expecting that and it reversed some impressions that I had about the characters. Never a bad thing.

I assume they were just trying to be true to the original novel. According to wikipedia (since I haven't actually read them)

Spoiler :

The events in the show happen out of order compared to the original: with the drug arc and Ayaka's 'suicide' happening in the beginning, followed by the Meo arc, then Ayaka wakes up with amnesia, followed by the rest of the events of the show. They certainly could have left her comatose, but this way if they decide to do a season 2 it's been established that she's waking up and won't feel like a cheesy plot device.

Ah, thanks. It never occurred to me that it could be a because of the original works.On the other hand it already looks like a bad plot device to me. For the anime I mean, in the original it's a valid turnpoint.

Of course, the trade-off is that by keeping her comatose until the final moment they avoid another annoying anime plot device, amnesia. If they were going to actually deviate from the original they should have just killed her off: splat, she jumped off the school and died. Leaving her comatose forever, or having her go comatose then eventually someone pulls the plug (or her just randomly die) is even worse.